Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oil cooler for a vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to an oil cooler for a vehicle of which a bypass valve, which is operated according to a temperature of a working fluid, is integrally provided.
Description of Related Art
Generally, an oil cooler for cooling transmission oil is a device which is provided to maintain the temperature of the transmission oil at a predetermined temperature such that it is not excessively increased by slip of transmission friction components, and such that fuel consumption is not deteriorated as friction loss is increased when oil viscosity increases by excessive cooling of the transmission oil. In addition, a conventional oil cooler is divided into an air-cooling type and a water-cooling type.
Among them, an air-cooling type of oil cooler includes an oil cooler provided at a location such as a front of a radiator at which the outside air smoothly flows, and a bypass valve that is installed in a pipe which is connected to the transmission to be opened and closed depending on the temperature of the transmission oil.
The bypass valve maintains the transmission oil at the predetermined temperature, such that when the temperature of the transmission oil is higher than the predetermined temperature, the transmission oil is caused to pass through the oil cooler via the bypass valve, and when the temperature of the transmission oil is lower than the predetermined temperature, the transmission oil is not allowed to pass through the oil cooler thereby flowing back into the transmission.
However, since the conventional oil cooler has the bypass valve that is connected to the transmission to be opened and closed depending on the temperature of the transmission oil as described above, and is installed in a pipe that connects the transmission and the oil cooler, because a relatively large bypass valve is located in the pipe, there is also a drawback that the piping layout is complicated, such that spatial utility of an engine compartment is degraded.
Furthermore, with the bypass valve applied to the conventional oil cooler as described above, since each of the constituent elements needs to be sequentially fitted and assembled to a valve mounting hole of a valve housing, there are drawbacks in which it is difficult to precisely position each of the constituent elements, excessive assembling time is required, and the manufacturing cost increases.
In addition, the bypass valve applied to the conventional oil cooler has a drawback in which, when cooling of the transmission oil is not required, since a part of the low-temperature transmission oil cooled in the oil cooler flows into the bypass valve from the transmission and then flows back into the transmission, together with the bypassed transmission oil in a high-temperature state, rapid warming of the transmission oil is difficult.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.